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This is the final post in the series on the REACT framework™, a practical and powerful framework that enables you to be the best you want to be, and to be in this position on virtually every occasion. I have developed and optimised the REACT framework™ over time. I use it personally, and I help my clients to learn how to use this powerful tool to have available to them the resources they need to be the best they want to be.

R

Recognise

E

Evaluate

A

Appropriate

C

Claim

T

Take

The framework enables you to recognise and evaluate your current state and to then identify and claim the appropriate resources that will enable you to be in the optimum state to be the best you want to be, in order to achieve what you really want – your Big Dream(s). A fuller explanation is available in the bonus material that accompanies the book ‘Dance with the Elephants’ which you can get from http://bit.ly/BonusMaterials

As you can see in the table above, the last element of the framework is T, which is for Take your claimed resources forward with you. When I work with people to help them get the most out of the REACT framework™, the best way is to do so in a safe environment. So it is important that I help them to experience using the resources that they have claimed in their minds before using them in the real world as they strive to achieve what they really want (for example, successfully presenting to a large group of people at work). I work with them so that they fully experience what could be possible using their claimed resources. It is important that they experience in their minds before they attempt their goal (e.g. their presentation) in real life. Repeatedly imagining in their minds how things could be strengthens their confidence and capability, as they build different scenarios that might happen and work out how they will use their claimed resources.

Sometimes this gives them the confidence to move on. Sometimes they discover that something is missing, they do not have all the resources they need. In this situation, I work with them to identify what appropriate resource(s) is or are missing, to claim those resources and to take them with them. This can take several iterations, but curiosity, compassion and creativity always win the day.

The final step is to help them with the learned skill of accessing these resources again at the time they are needed. This is largely a question of practice leading to confidence and familiarity. I always remind them to run through the REACT framework™ shortly before going into the situation where they need all the appropriate resources with them. In practising running through REACT, I will introduce the ‘triggers’ that will help them more easily, more quickly and more powerfully access the appropriate resource to support them. Creating, cultivating and calling on these triggers will be covered in a subsequent bonus material which will be available from http://bit.ly/BonusMaterials . For now, I encourage you to practice the use of REACT to counter the limiting influence, power and control of your other-than-conscious mind so that you will be able to be the best you want to be almost all the time.

Now you have knowledge of all five elements of the REACT framework™ it is time to ask yourself a question: – how committed are you to being the best you want to be? I hope you are fully committed, and if you are I would like to help you and others like you. I have developed a low-cost, experiential and interactive workshop that will enable you to hone and perfect your use of the REACT framework™ to enable you to be the best you want to be. You can find out more here http://bit.ly/REACTworkshop

Here’s a bonus for you. Not only do you get to learn how to use the REACT framework™, but also let me share with you my personal experience which will make your use of it even more effective. I want you to understand the vital importance of the Evaluate step.

I was planning to use a holiday period to complete a large quantity of very substantial pieces of work, significant in both volume and value to my business. I did not feel I needed to run REACT – I had successfully achieved such volume and value in the holiday period precisely one year earlier, and I had the triggers to help me access the resources I had used twelve months earlier. It would not be an absolute certainty to complete the tasks, but I had done so previously and was very confident that I could do so again.

Day one of the holiday period was fantastic. I completed a large volume of work and was very pleased with the extent of my progress and the quality of the output. I even recall thinking that, if I progressed at the same rate for the next few days, I would be able to reward myself with a totally indulgent day with a TV series box-set and a couple of hours reading a book I was looking forward to. I was in a wonderful mood that evening and slept the sleep of the contented.

Day two was a disaster! I could not focus, I could not decide which task I wanted to move forward, and I kept distracting myself with tasks that were not on my ‘to do’ list. My output was minimal in both volume and quantity. I did not sleep well.

Day three was like day two, only I felt light-headed, somewhat warmer in my skin than I would have expected on a winter’s day, and slightly nauseous. The changes in my physiology almost automatically kicked off the REACT framework™ – they were so obvious that the recognition routine kicked in, perhaps initiated by my other-than-conscious mind. I recognised I was not in the best state, and moved to the evaluation phase. It was clear to me that I was ill (it later became apparent that I had an ear infection). I easily evaluated my state as ‘not fit for purpose’ for completing the tasks I wanted for the business. My learning (or reminder perhaps) is that your evaluation should include assessing the appropriateness of the resources you need to support you. Thus I realised the fact that I was ill should affect which appropriate resources I should select.

The resources I had a year earlier that had enabled me to achieve all I had that year were totally inappropriate. The resources I needed were those that I had previously had when I was ill – the situation I needed to recreate was a time when I had been clearly rather ill and had recovered quickly and effectively. That really wasn’t too difficult. I once had a bout of severe ‘man flu’ which really did hit me hard so I set about reliving that time. It was pretty easy to recall how I felt – pretty much how I was feeling this time around. As I relived history, I recalled the sights and sounds that had been around me, and the smell and taste of chicken soup and plain toast came to mind. The memories convinced me to break out the TV box-set, to prepare some soup (actually vegetable and pasta as they didn’t need defrosting), and to just chill out!

So when you are in Evaluate be realistic, be compassionate for your own needs, and choose resources that are appropriate to the state you are actually in, and not the state you would like to be in. Sometimes there is no direct route to the state we would like; we have to take the detour that allows us to make progress. Dogged determination to get straight to where we would like to be, to the state we want to be in to achieve our original goal just isn’t always enough to be effective.

In this penultimate post in the series on the REACT framework™, we will start to get more resourceful. Being more resourceful will enable you to have the access to the means to be the best you want to be, and for you to be in this position on virtually every occasion.

R

Recognise

E

Evaluate

A

Appropriate

C

Claim

T

Take

In the A part of REACT, you imaginatively identified appropriate resources that would enable you to be in the right state (made up of a combination of any or all of your physiology, your emotions, your acuity, and your spiritual condition) to achieve what you really want to achieve. You didn’t limit yourself in any way, but let your creativity, imagination and child-like sense of wonder create the maximum possibilities for you.

C is for Claim your resources. Now you know what resources are appropriate to your situation, it is time to find and claim those resources, to make them available to you in the here and now. Take one resource at a time (for instance, to achieve the state that is best for what I want to achieve, I need to be really, really creative) and think of a time when you had that resource in abundance (recall a time when you really were at your creative best). Relive that time as fully as you can, recall it through as many senses as you are able. Hear what was said (actual dialogue if you can, both yours and any others involved), see what you saw at the time (with as much detail as you can; what colours were you wearing?) and experience once again the feelings and emotions that coursed through you. If you can, notice any smells and tastes associated with the experience. Make reliving the experience as full as you can, and enjoy it.

I recall working with one client who identified an appropriate resource as ‘being very happy and care-free’. As the client searched for a previous time when this had been her state, I could see that it was taking a lot of effort and processing by the brain and memory banks. After a while, a massive grin appeared on her face, followed by tears of joy. It was apparently a long time previously that she had last experienced such happiness in a care-free state.

Relive the experience, and recall the resources that you had at the time and keep with you the knowledge of having the resource, so that you can bring that resource into the here and now. Repeat the exercise for each of the resources appropriate to achieving what you want in the present and the future. In a future bonus material, I will share with you ways of creating ‘triggers’ that make easier the accessing of your previous resources. The triggers enable me to access the resources I need and I have many, many triggers that I have amassed, cultivated and treasured over time. When the bonus material is released, you can get it from http://bit.ly/BonusMaterials

But what do you do if you genuinely cannot recall a time when you had the resource that you know is appropriate for you right now? The first response is to persist in your search as my client did a couple of paragraphs back. If you initially think you have never had the resource, ask yourself again. ‘Really? Are you certain? Is your mind telling you that you have never had the resource doing so because that seems the easy option?’ So often, patience, persistence and positivity, along with encouragement, curiosity and open-mindedness, enable the apparently resource-less to find and claim their appropriate resources.

However, there have been times when a client has not been able to identify an occasion when they have truly had their appropriate resource. This is challenging, but not entirely insurmountable. Sometimes people say to me things such as ‘I will be presenting to 50 people, and I have never done that before, so I don’t have the resource I need to present to such a large number of people’. I work with them to break down the resource(s) they need into smaller pieces. For example, can they recall a time when they presented really well, if only to a few people or to one person even – a time when they persuaded this smaller number and were comfortable in doing so? I then help them to relive that experience. Having done that, I may then ask if they can recall a time when they were happy and comfortable in a large group of people, say at a party or a wedding or a company social outing. Again, I help them to re-experience that event fully using all the senses. I then help them to take the two constituent parts they need (comfort with presenting and comfort in a large group) and imagine how things would be if they combined those two resources to help them present to a large group for the first time. (In this particular case I would also tell them that the best presenters don’t present to a collective audience, they make one-to-one contact with individuals, one person at a time).

When searching for and claiming your resources please do not limit yourself by looking only in places that have the same context. In the example above, the context was presenting to a large group of people in the business world, but one of the resources needed came from a social setting. Context is irrelevant – it is still your resource, wherever you had it.

In the final post we’ll look at how to use to best effect the resources you have now claimed. If you want to really understand the REACT framework™, and want to perfect your use of it to be the best you want to be click here http://bit.ly/REACTworkshop

For this third blog post in the short series on the REACT framework™ it’s ‘give us an ‘A’!’ The REACT framework™ will enable you to have the finest chance to be the best you want to be, and for you to be in this position on virtually every occasion

R

Recognise

E

Evaluate

A

Appropriate

C

Claim

T

Take

A is for Appropriate resources. What are the resources that would enable you to access the appropriate state? That is the state that would give to the best chance of achieving your goal. Resources include obvious physical things like equipment, clothing and even chocolate, but also include the less tangible such as feelings. It may be that what you need in the appropriate state is to feel happy, or to be excited, or to have a great sense of achievement. They also include thoughts. In order to achieve what you want right now, what would it be helpful to think about? For example, you may want to create a new product or service – might it be useful to think about that last time you did so, or perhaps a time when you were particularly creative or inventive? Beliefs are also an example of intangible resources – was there a time that you really believed you could triumph over adversity, seemingly overwhelming odds, and outstanding competition? Initially select the three most important resources you have identified.

In imagining the resources that would be most appropriate, you will want your current state to be congruent with you. The ‘Dance with the Elephants’ chapter Your Congruence is Vital and the bonus material called A Model for Alignment outline the importance and power of congruence. Your state is the way that you are in any given moment. It is made up of a combination of any or all of your physiology, your emotions, your acuity, and your spiritual condition (the latter being the relationship between you and a sense of something larger than you). When you think about what would be the appropriate resources to enable you to change your state, make sure they are all congruent with you. That includes those chocoholics whose beliefs and values include purity of diet.

In the A stage, it is useful to focus on identifying what the appropriate resources would be, with no thought about where to obtain them from, and no regard for whether or not you have ever had such resources. Don’t limit yourself, let your imagination run free, let a child-like curiosity determine the resources you would like to have in order to be the best you want to be.

Creativity in identifying appropriate resources will give you fewer limitations, a greater number of options, and will create new possibilities for you if you let it. The chapter of ‘Dance with the Elephants’ titled Get Creative! Introduces and explains the CREATE process for increasing individual and collective creativity. There is also a planned Bonus Material on innovation and creativity that will be available from http://bit.ly/BonusMaterials when it is released.

The next blog post will explain what to do next, and how, after you have identified your appropriate resources – that is claim them! If you want to really understand the REACT framework™, and want to perfect your use of it to be the best you want to be click on http://bit.ly/REACTworkshop

In this second blog post in the series on the REACT framework™ we reach the letter ‘E’.

R

Recognise

E

Evaluate

A

Appropriate

C

Claim

T

Take

E is for Evaluate your state. Is your state appropriate for what you want to do, how you want to feel, how you want to be with the world? If you are feeling a little blue, is that helping you right now? Are you excited, buoyant and focused?

If your breathing is rapid and shallow, does that fit with what you want to do? If you want to really exercise, it may be appropriate. If you want to deeply consider something complex, important and long-term in nature, perhaps controlling your breathing and taking long, deep, slow breaths would be more useful.

Your state can be affected by your environment; what is your environment like at the moment and what impact is it having on you right now? Continuing with the theme of deep consideration, are you somewhere calm and tranquil, or are you in a noisy, bustling, crowded area with many visual and auditory distractions?

We don’t always appreciate where our state originated. It may be it is not even our natural state, but one that has been conditioned into us. To this day, I have ‘white-coat’ syndrome whenever someone suggests taking my blood pressure. I know where it comes from – my father’s family had a strong (and correct) concern that having their blood pressure taken could reveal an increased possibility of experiencing a heart attack. I know it isn’t my state, and if I don’t react to that state, I can feel my heart rate increasing. Years ago, I would not be conscious of my state of anxiety at the time of annual medicals, would not recognise that it wasn’t even my state and that my resultant actions followed my state. There was a period when my company doctor had concerns that my blood pressure readings were consistently higher than he liked. Once I learned to recognise my state, and to react accordingly my doctor’s concerns lessened as my readings fell. (I would love to tell you they fell and stayed low, but if you recall, earlier in this paragraph I told you I still struggle with the condition even now.)

In the Evaluate stage, all you want to do is to understand whether or not your state is appropriate. If it is, is there anything you can change that would amplify the effect, would give you an even more appropriate state? Perhaps some quiet and soothing music would help. Switching off that ‘phone or computer so you know you won’t be interrupted? Some little treat that would make you feel even better? (Chocoholics know what I mean!)

Stay calm as you evaluate your state; it is what it currently is. The talent lies in recognising whether or not your current state is the right state for you to be in to be the best you want to be.

In the next blog post, we will move towards creating the right state that will enable you to be the best you want to be. If you want to really understand the REACT framework™, and want to perfect your use of it to be the best you want to be click here http://bit.ly/REACTworkshop

This is the first post in a series that will enable you to be the best you want to be, almost all the time. On several occasions in the book ‘Dance with the Elephants’ reference is made to recognising and recording the positives that you experience each and every day. The chapter entitled ‘Celebrate!’ explains the process that your conscious mind can use to train your other-than-conscious mind, creating new neural pathways in your brain. The framework that will be explained in this series of blog posts will enable you not only to supplement the creation of these new neural pathways but also to access resources that will enable you to be even more successful.

Doing the work on your Big Dream, Crafted Well, Engaging All is vitally important, but sometimes it just isn’t enough. Surprisingly (or, maybe not) we get in the way of our own success. I write ‘maybe not’ because it probably isn’t surprising given that a lot of our moods, thoughts and deeds are determined by our other-than-conscious minds. We really aren’t consciously in control a lot of the time.

So how do you counter the influence, power and control of your other-than-conscious mind? How do you seize back control in order to give yourself the best chance of realising your Big Dream and achieving your transformation?

Here is a framework I have developed over time. I use it personally, and I help my clients to learn how to use this powerful tool to have available to them the resources they need to be the best they want to be.

R

Recognise

E

Evaluate

A

Appropriate

C

Claim

T

Take

R is for Recognise your state. Your state is the way that you are in any given moment. It is made up of a combination of any or all of your physiology, your emotions, your acuity, and your spiritual condition (the latter being the relationship between you and a sense of something larger than you). In order to manage your state you must first be able to recognise your state, something most people don’t do very often, often only recognising their state when it gets to be at an extreme end of a spectrum. Sometimes we only recognise that we are fearful when we are very, very afraid. Sometimes it is only extreme giddy elation that leads to us recognising we are elated. Sometimes it is only when we have really lost our cool and our tempers, when we are screaming out loud, when we are physically shaking, that we recognise we are very angry about something, or somebody.

Recognising your state is a learnable skill that improves with practice. Take a moment now to notice your physiology. Is your breathing deep or shallow? Is it slow and long or quick and short? Is it through your nose, your mouth or a bit of both?

Notice other things about your physiology. Are you sitting upright or are you slumped? What is your temperature like? Are you cold, or warm, or is the temperature just right?

Consider what your body is telling you. Do you have any aches or pains? Can you feel how your feet are touching the ground? If you are sitting, which parts of your body are touching whatever you are sitting on?

What is your emotional state right now? How are you feeling about what you are experiencing right now? This exercise is having what effect on your emotions? Are you happy, frustrated, or perhaps curious? Don’t process these questions intellectually, but instead feel your responses.

How is your mental state right now, in this very moment, in this very place? What is your level of attentiveness, your degree of awareness, your volume of conscious brain activity?

Having conscious awareness of your current state is the first step. In subsequent blog posts I will take you through the rest of the journey to being the best you want to be.

In my corporate career I had around 15 years in which I carried a personal sales target, one which substantially impacted my remuneration. As a small business owner, I am back to carrying a sales target that not only affects my remuneration but also affects the viability of my business. I recall all the sales training, tools and techniques and annual (or even sometimes quarterly) sales conferences designed to motivate, inspire and occasionally educate me and my peers. I remember the mantra of the sales organisation where I first carried quota – ABC!

Always Be Closing! Every working minute of every working day, and in emails outside of those times, I was encouraged to make the pitch and close the deal. Our Sales Director once told us ‘every day, you have 86,400 opportunities to close – don’t miss any of them!’ (I had to ask, and was told that’s how many seconds there are in a day, and it only takes a second to close a deal.)

Previous blog posts have taken readers through the logic of needing a new paradigm to enable us to allow customers and prospective customers to say ‘Yes!’ eagerly, joyfully and enthusiastically to doing business with us. If ‘Always Be Closing’ is an out-of-date mantra, what is the new ABC that I refer to? Here it is – Always Be Congruent! Nowadays there are three congruencies required

congruence with you as a person,

congruence with your client(s) and prospective client(s),

congruence with your delivery organisation and capability.

Let’s start with you, because if you don’t get you right the next two congruencies will always seem false to others.

To be successful growing your business you must, as outlined in the book ‘Dance with the Elephants’ www.dancewiththeelephants.com Dance your own Dance. Don’t Dance the Dance of your competition, or some other Dance you think will allow you to flourish but does not truly represent who you are and what you stand for. If you are to compete with and win against your competitors, then your customers, prospective clients and all your stakeholders must experience the true essence of you and your company in all their dealings with you. That essence starts not with what you do, but why you do it.

One of the bonus materials that accompany ‘Dance with the Elephants’ is A Model for Alignment and it is available from the official website of the book http://bit.ly/1yx25aq The model illustrates what is necessary for you to achieve personal congruence. The Model for Alignment recognises that we interact with our world at different logical levels, ranging from environmental factors, through our behaviours, our capabilities and skills, our beliefs and values and, by way of our very identity, into our overall sense of purpose. The model acknowledges the different natures of these interactions. Your target is to have all logical levels aligned with your Big Dream (which is everything you want in life, crafted in such a way that it truly engages you and engages all the stakeholders that can help you achieve it), your Well-Formed Outcome (your nirvana, the equivalent of the nirvana you are helping clients to achieve through the use of the ALIGNED framework http://wp.me/P3sGMs-6r), your overriding sense of purpose – each of which should be perfectly congruent with each other in order for you to be successful in growing your business.

When you are aligned at all logical levels, people will be certain about you. Some people will decide not to align with you. This is good because it is a genuine choice based on understanding and incompatibility. You don’t want to waste your energies trying to align with these people. Those who really get you will choose to align with you, will choose to do business with you, and will choose to become ardent supporters and promoters of you and your business. There is much more guidance about achieving personal alignment in the book http://www.dancewiththeelephants.com

The second congruency needed to be successful in growing your business is congruency with clients and prospective clients. It seems so obvious that, given ‘people buy from people’, there should be a strong bond between the seller and the buyer, or prospective buyer. Yet so often the seller does not take the time to truly align with the potential customer, instead trying to get a ‘best fit’ between what they have and what the customer might possibly want, taking scant, if any, time to understand the needs and desires of the customer. Perhaps worse there is an expectation, a presumption, that the customer or prospective customer actually knows what they want.

So often, it is only by spending time together exploring what would be the ideal solution for both parties that true understanding emerges. The understanding that evolves is not only what is sought, but also why it is wanted, and what the associated benefits are for both parties – creating a far richer and more meaningful link between the parties and the solution; a solution that both parties have a greater interest in and commitment to because they have been part of the nascent solution.

The ALIGNED framework, concentrating so much as it does on understanding the situation of the prospective buyer, constantly asking the question ‘can I find the perfect solution?’, and avoiding premature searches for possible solutions, greatly improves the alignment between seller and prospective buyer. By staying as long as possible in the question, using interrogative self-talk instead of assertive, the potential seller creates the opportunity to identify the resources needed to provide the perfect solution and crafts internal, intrinsic motivations over externally referenced drivers. Keeping alive the possibility that the answer that may emerge could be ‘No, I cannot provide the perfect solution’ multiplies the effect of the interrogative approach.

The final factor required to deliver success is your alignment with your delivery capability. I will be returning to this topic in future newsletters and blog posts on the subject of ‘aligned customer experience’ so will not write exhaustively on the topic at this time. It is without doubt a big topic; in essence success comes from those delivering your ideal solution being totally aligned with the values inherent in your brand. A brand is a promise kept, and the successful delivery of that promise, that which will enable your client to be truly delighted instead of merely satisfied, is a crucial element in building alignment between you and your customers. Everything in the delivery must be smooth, comfortable and natural for those delivering, particularly where the service is bespoke to the customer and delivered person-to-person.

For instance, in a care setting where highly personalised services are being delivered to individuals, those delivering must be totally aligned to the ethos of caring, not just changing bandages, washing or cleaning for their clients. The service delivery must be aligned with the values underpinning your brand, your promise to deliver the perfect solution. The environment has to be appropriate; as do the behaviours of the service deliverers, who need to have and demonstrate the right skills and capabilities. In delivering the promise, those delivering must be clear that doing so is entirely consistent with their beliefs and values, enabling them to really identify with their role, and enabling them to connect with their overall sense of purpose, their calling, their raison d’être.

Nowadays it is no longer ‘Always Be Closing’; instead it is about ‘Always Be Congruent’. The latter is more comfortable, allows us to be more fulfilled and enables us to connect with our overriding sense of purpose. It is also more effective (50% more effective) that the old sales methods, techniques and motivational tricks of yesteryear.

If you are not a natural sales person, feel discomfort when assuming the sales role and would like to remain true to who you really are as a professional trying to grow their business, I commend my alternative to you. The ALIGNED framework and the Cialdini materials are now available as the Congruent Business Development System™ and the Congruent Client Attraction System™ respectively. These can be delivered into your business through a variety of mechanisms – let’s discuss what would be the ideal solution for your business – contact me here piw@wttresults.co.uk

In the final post of this series of three I want to unveil the little-known research that shows selling as we traditionally have known it is inappropriate because it generates half the success of an alternative approach that very few people are aware of and even less people are using. Would you like to be twice as effective at enabling clients and prospective clients to say ‘Yes!’ enthusiastically to you? What would be the effect on your business if you could achieve that? If you had that effect on your business, how would your life be?

So what is the third reason why selling is inappropriate? It is surprising and I am grateful to Daniel Pink for giving me access to studies I was previously unaware of that helped me to understand precisely why the ALIGNED framework that I use and teach is so effective. http://wp.me/P3sGMs-6r In essence the framework is successful because it is based on a premise that I don’t know whether or not I have the best solution for the client until stage 6 of 7. Step one is about setting up the rest of the process that I and the client will go though. Crucially steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all about questioning and gaining understanding. Through each of these four steps of the framework the question is ‘can I provide the best solution?’

So why is this so important? Why is a questioning approach so effective? Why is the inherent doubt about whether or not I have the right solution so powerful? Surely self-doubt is limiting; that is certainly what the motivational gurus will tell us, the likes of Robbins and McKenna. Surely it is more effective to have our self-talk tell us ‘Yes, we can!’ This is the basis of a lot of sales training – developing the winning mind-set, banishing doubt, and having a positive mental attitude (I can hear the whooping of the sales force right now).

The studies do indeed show that having a positive, assertive, affirmative approach is better than having a negative attitude and approach. Positive self-talk is generally better than negative self-talk. Researchers concluded that the most effective self-talk does not just shift emotions; the most effective self-talk actually changes linguistic categories. This self-talk moves the subject from making statements to asking questions.

In 2010, three researchers from two universities in the United States published the results of a series of experiments that confirmed the effectiveness of ‘interrogative self-talk’. Participants were split into two groups and given the same task to perform. The only difference between the two groups was that one group was instructed by the researchers to ask themselves if they could complete the task, whilst the second group were told to tell themselves that they could complete the task. On average the self-questioning group were 50% more effective than the self-affirming group at completing the task.

Pink kindly explains why the ‘interrogative self-talk’ is more effective, giving two reasons. Firstly, by its very nature, the interrogative approach elicits answers, within which lie strategies for actually carrying out the task. The affirmative approach may go something like ‘I have a sales pitch to make. I’m the best. This will be easy. The sale is mine!’ This approach may well provide a short-term emotional boost. However, if your approach is ‘Can I make a great sales pitch?’ the research shows that you provide yourself with something that reaches deeper and has a longer-lasting impact. You may answer the question with ‘Yes, I have made great pitches on 6 occasions in the last month.’ Or ‘Of course I can, I have prepared meticulously and I know the material inside out.’ And you might also elicit the response ‘Last time I rushed the beginning a little, so I want to start off slower this time.’ Affirmation is good, but the interrogative enables you to identify and obtain the resources you actually need to complete the task.

Researchers found the second reason to be that interrogative self-talk ‘may inspire thoughts about autonomous or intrinsically motivated reasons to pursue a goal’. People are more likely to act, and to perform well, when motivations derive from intrinsic choices rather than from extrinsic pressures.

Positive Mental Attitude is important and is more efficacious than negativity, but it really only gets you halfway there!

If you are not a natural sales person, feel discomfort when assuming the sales role and would like to remain true to who you really are as a professional trying to grow their business, I commend my alternative to you. The ALIGNED framework and the Cialdini materials are now available as the Congruent Business Development System™ and the Congruent Client Attraction System™ respectively. These can be delivered into your business through a variety of mechanisms – let’s discuss what would be the ideal solution for your business – contact me here piw@wttresults.co.uk